One thing is always certain in the world of online gambling – you’ll never run out of new games to play. If you go back just 8 years, the competition between developers was nothing compared to what it is today.
Back then, you had NetEnt, Microgaming, IGT, Novomatic, and Playtech as well as the odd obscure developer like Mazooma or Esball fighting for dominance. There really wasn’t much more than that and between them, they didn’t release all that many games either. Certainly nothing even remotely close to what we see today where one single developer can churn out up to 5 games per month.
Out of interest, we had a look at the release schedule for April, 2012 and could see three particular titles that stood out; Scarface (NetEnt), Medusa (NextGen Gaming), and Booty Time (Microgaming). Fascinatingly, these are three fairly decent games that still remain in service today. With that said, it’s time to have a look at some of the most recent online slots releases!
Annihilator (Play’n GO)
Ever heard of Canadian trash metal band Annihilator? Don’t worry, neither had we until Play’n GO came up with the Annihilator slot. The Swedish studio now has a collection of six branded slots in their rock band series with Annihilator being the latest. The music? Well, with over 3 million records sold world wide, it can’t be all that bad, but unless you’re an avid trash metal fan, it’s unlikely you’ll return to this slot solely for the music.
Even if you strongly dislike the sounds coming from this game, there might still be reason to give it a try if you enjoy Play’n GO slots in general. The production quality is as good as ever and the free spins feature is a whole lot of fun. Just so you know, it comes with one of those dreadful picking bonus games which are usually just low-rewarding nonsense. As typically is the case, it lowerd the free spins frequency, making it harder to trigger. On the positive side, you can actually trigger the free spins from the picking game, so at least there is some excitement to it.
Annihilator is a bit more straight forward than other titles in the series and doesn’t come with all that many surprises. The action takes place on a standard 5-reel, 10-payline grid and maximum payout is capped at the usual 5,000 times your stake.
Beetlejuice Megaways (Barcrest)
Oh how excited we were to hear the news of a Beetlejuice slot – and one using the popular Megaways engine too! Directed by the awesome Tim Burton, Beetlejuice is an American comedy horror-fantasy film released in 1988 starring top names such as Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, and Michael Keaton. Sadly, Beetlejuice Megaways failed to live up to the expectations and received a rather lukewarm response from us and the slots audience alike.
Being a Megaways slot, as well as a branded title, it does generate a lot of interest, which is why we’re featuring it on this list. But just like several other Megaways slots from the SG Digital team, it feels rushed, is awkward to play, and looks quite depressing. If you still want to give it a go, and you just might for nostalgic reasons, it comes bundled with cascading symbols, Ghost Mystery symbols and a free spins feature with increasing win multiplier. Nothing we haven’t seen before in other words.
Play Beetlejuice Megaways at LeoVegas
Zeus’ Lightning Power Reels (Red Tiger)
For us, it’s always interesting to see whether or not the casino community agrees with our verdict of the games once they go live. In the case of Red Tiger, it has been quite hard to predict. Their previous release, The Wild Hatter, for example, didn’t impress us all that much, but turned out to be GVC’s best performing exclusive game of all time, so hats off to Red Tiger for that. However, hardcore gamers and casual gamers are two widely different type of players and there’s no doubt that Bigwinboard better represents the former.
In any case, Zeus’ Lightning is the name of Red Tiger’s fifth addition to their Power Reels series and it’s also probably the best one to date. Now, as some of you already know, there’s few things we dislike as much as the combination of massive grids combined with a limited amount of paylines which happens to be the case here. You get 7 reels coupled with 6 rows, yet it’s limited to only 30 paylines. Que?
Having said that, there’s still a lot of great aspects to this game such as the 5,000x win potential and a massively generous RTP of 97.73% (although it can be lower depending on where you play). The game is absolutely stunning, so if you’re a sucker for atmosphere and good looks, this is one of the better new slots to try this week.
Play Zeus’ Lightning Power Reels at Rizk
Gorilla Kingdom (NetEnt)
In spite of the rather low 2,800x potential, Gorilla Kingdom turned out to be our favorite new slot of the week. Rich in colour, and with fantastic visuals as well as superb animations, the developers at NetEnt have made a fantastic job of giving life to this virtual rainforest. With 1,024 win ways, there’s no need to keep track of annoying paylines which makes gameplay simple and straightforward.
Gorilla Kingdom is not super rich in features, but that’s actually ok. The base game ticks along fine with a chance to land plenty of nice hits with the help of stacked high paying symbols. Overall, the math model is quite gentle and can give a lot of bang for the buck if it’s entertainment and play time is an important factor to you. Having said that, this is more or less a copy of Thunderkick’s Pink Elephants slot (Pink Elephants 2 is on the way if you haven’t heard), so if you want to play a significantly more volatile version that also has the potential to be a whole lot more lucrative, you can consider trying that one instead.
